Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

[Steve Carter]

My wife, youngest son and I, made our first visit to Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge this past Sunday.

Got there sort of late in the afternoon, but it turned out to be a nice couple of hours. We were able to see and photograph some critters we'd not seen before.

Shortly after starting on our car tour, the car in front of us found something interesting in the marsh. It looks to be a Nutria and one having a bad hair day.

My wife spotted this different colored duck paddling around. Just about the time I got it in frame, it took flight. Sort of a goofy looking expression and an interesting name: Cinnamon Teal.

I was pleased to find that most of the sequence of shots I took while panning it, were nice and sharp, so I made a collage from the five best images.

The large number of turtles sunning themselves was a nice surprise. These two seem to have it made!

After a brief walk about, we spotted this Great Blue Herron looking for a place to set down. Seems the duck has an opinion on the matter.

Shortly after resuming out tour, we spotted another Heron. This one was trying to have a bit of dinner. That's a pretty good sized frog. I wonder if someone else had frog legs for supper.

High on my wish list was catching a Beaver. At first we thought this was a river otter, but upon closer inspection of the best image, I'm pretty sure it's a dam builder!

Finally another sequence of a Heron in flight. Truly majestic!

For a Railfan like myself, no photo outing is complete without a train or two. This one was just outside the Refuge and quite an odd duck.

We can't wait to go back and spend more time at Ridgefield.

 

[fiznatty]

What a great variety. Love those giant frog legs.

I have yet to see a nutria around, though I keep hearing about how they're invading our local wetlands. Based on what you've found I may have to make a trip to Ridgefield at some point!

Max

 

[arlinescott]

Steve,

If you look at the tail on the swimming rodent you will see it is a nutria as well. The beaver tail either sinks under the water or lies flat on top. Your guy has a rat shaped tail.

I am glad you and the family liked the refuge. Maybe we can do a photo meet there sometime.

 

[squirl033]

Steve,

If you look at the tail on the swimming rodent you will see it is a nutria as well. The beaver tail either sinks under the water or lies flat on top. Your guy has a rat shaped tail.

I am glad you and the family liked the refuge. Maybe we can do a photo meet there sometime.

yep, it's a nutria. another dead giveaway is the slight curve of the tail held above water... every nutria i've ever seen swims with this curve of tail elevated out of water. beavers usually keep their broad, flat tails submerged just below the surface, or occasionally flat on the water, but not elevated.

nutria are an invasive species, brought to this country by the fur industry as a substitute for beaver, and are considered a threat to wetland shorelines. they eat their body weight in vegetation every 3 or 4 days, and can quickly destroy the native vegetation along a shoreline. they also burrow into banks and wetlands, eating the roots and "runners" of plants, resulting in areas where the plant life has largely been destroyed. the babies can eat plants within just a few hours of birth, and the female can have up to 3 litters a year. these critters are bad news for the wetland environment! we used to have them in Lake Washington, and they were quite common at Juanita Bay Park, but i think most of them have been removed - i haven't seen one in a couple of years.

 

[squirl033]

i've only gotten shots of cinnamon teal a couple of times... they don't show up much around here. but it's easy to see how they got the name... when they're sitting still, they're almost entirely the color of ground cinnamon!

 

[steveeshom]

Very nice Steve. It looks like you got some great photos of the animals doing what they do...and had some fun doing it.

Ridgefield is fun for sure.

 

[Steve Carter]

Thanks for the comments.

I wasn't sure about the Nutria. I checked some other photos, and most showed a skinny rat tail, and this looked much broader. I figured it was only a portion of the broad tail of a beaver that was above water. Never did get much of a shot with the tail showing.

I guess a Beaver is still on the list.

 

[arlinescott]

By the way Steve...

I love the composite of the five shots. That teal is a very photogenic bird.